I'm confident that the car is fine other than the damn wiring harness. The car has a meticulous dealer maintenance record. Both of the owners before me even replaced the tires, brakes, etc. at the dealer when most people would do those items elsewhere.
After driving the car for 6 months now, I've absolutely fallen in love with it. It looks and drives like a new car. The paint, body, interior, leather, wood are as new.
I come from a family where both my mother and father always drove mercedes, and I mean with mega-bionic miles on them (400,000+). I know that it is sometimes more expensive to drive a mercedes because parts and maintenance are more expensive than American / Japanese cars. But it is worth it because you are still driving a car that has superior engineering, timeless styling, excellent road manners, and little depreciation.
I'm just beside myself that mercedes wouldn't have taken care of this problem to protect its reputation. I know Lexus and Honda surely would have. My good friend was the Director of quality control for Honda in the late seventies and early eighties and is currently head of quality control of Mitsubishi Motors U.S.A. He said that Honda built really horrible cars at that time, but replaced a ton of parts for free for customers to keep them happy. Sometimes even whole transmissions. They kept this secret from consumers who felt that they were driving high-quality cars, when they really weren't. They simply bought customer loyalty.
I guess my question still is, will I likely cause more damage if I let it go for a while? I'll see if the dealer will take care of it, but frankly, considering the year and mileage (130,000 miles) I'm not too confident. And if I have to do it myself, I'd like some time to build the bank account back up after ovr $3,000 in six months.